The Final Score

by Don Winslow

Overview

“The best crime fiction I've read in twenty years.” — Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author

"A masterpiece....Don Winslow remains one of my all-time favorite writers." —James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author
#1 internationally bestselling author Don Winslow—America’s King of Crime Fiction—is back and he’s better than ever.
The trademark literary style, trenchant wit, and incisive characterization that have made Don Winslow a repeat New York Times bestselling author and “America’s greatest living crime writer” (Providence Journal) are on brilliant display in this new book sure to delight Winslow’s most devoted fans and first-time readers.
The multi-million-dollar casino heist is impossible—it can’t be done. That’s what makes it irresistible to a legendary robber facing the rest of his life in prison for his “Final Score.” An ambitious, hard-working college-bound teenager has a side job delivering illegal booze to “The Sunday List” until a crooked cop, a seductive customer, and a fake guru threaten to end his dreams. Two wise guys tell each other a “True Story” over breakfast at a diner. It’s all bullshit and laughs until someone else has to pick up the check. An otherwise honest patrolman has to make an excruciating choice between his loyalty to the job and his love for a ne’er-do-well cousin in “The North Wing.” The entitled, substance-addicted movie star that surfer/PI Boone Daniels and his crew are hired to babysit in “The Lunch Break” is a problem. She also has a problem—someone wants her dead. Finally, the one terrible, momentary mistake that a devoted family man makes sends him to prison and on a “Collision” course between the man he wants to be and the killer he’s forced to become to survive.
With a foreword written by award-winning crime author Reed Farrel Coleman, The Final Score is a propulsive, perceptive, and deeply immersive book of crime writing — the ultimate testament to Don Winslow's prowess as a living legend of the genre.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063475915
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	01/27/2026
Edition description:	Large Type
Pages:	416
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Don Winslow is the author of twenty-six acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including eight New York Times bestsellers (Savages, The Kings of Cool, The Cartel, The Force, The Border, City on Fire, City of Dreams and City in Ruins). Savages was made into a feature film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone from a screenplay by Shane Salerno, Winslow and Stone. Crime 101, based on Winslow's short novel, will be released as a theatrical film from Amazon. He has also written a series of award-winning short stories for Audible narrated by four-time Oscar nominee Ed Harris. A former investigator, anti-terrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in California and Rhode Island.

Editorial Reviews

“The best crime fiction I've read in twenty years.” - Stephen King, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“A masterpiece. One way to look at Don Winslow’s latest masterpiece is that it’s like experiencing six very cool movies and you won’t forget any of them. Unforgettable, unputdownable, and just a fantastic read. Don Winslow remains one of my all-time favorite writers." - James Patterson, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Each of these stories has clever plotting and sharp dialogue, a hallmark of all the author’s work.... Gritty little gems.” - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“After a brief period of retirement, Winslow’s welcome return to writing proves that he’s still a deft hand at crime fiction. Running the gamut from action-packed to uproariously funny to deeply poignant, every story in this collection hits its mark." - Library Journal (starred review)
"Winslow’s keen ear for dialogue shines throughout . . . . It’s always refreshing to spend time with Winslow’s inimitable prose." - Publishers Weekly
"Near-peerless crime fiction....If America had a national uncle, Winslow might be a good choice." - Rolling Stone
“Superb . . . . These stories spotlight the things Winslow is known for: vividly realized characters, morally ambiguous situations, pitch-perfect dialogue, and stories that pull us in and refuse to let us go. The author has published some astonishingly good fiction—see, for example, the Cartel trilogy (The Power of the Dog, The Cartel; and The Border) along with The Force—and the tales in The Final Score are among his best work. . . . It’s great to have this exceptional crime writer back in action.” - Booklist
"A totemic figure in crime fiction, one of the most successful, lauded and imitated to ever do it." - Washington Post
"The six stories in The Final Score touch on all of Winslow's greatest hits...but they also feel a bit more personal....Within all of that muscular prose is a search for true humanity, a belief that there are soft spots in a hard world. He pours a certain sort of hope into his fiction....His books sing with the small details that transport you to real places." - Washington Post
“This is a collection of six previously unpublished short novels, and they are, every one of them, superb . . . . These stories spotlight the things Winslow is known for: vividly realized characters, morally ambiguous situations, pitch-perfect dialogue, and stories that pull us in and refuse to let us go. The author has published some astonishingly good fiction—see, for example, the Cartel trilogy (The Power of the Dog, 2005; The Cartel, 2015; and The Border, 2019) along with The Force (2017)—and the tales in The Final Score are among his best work. . . . It’s great to have this exceptional crime writer back in action.” - Booklist
"[Don Winslow is] back with six short stories that are intense, fun and thrilling." - Red Carpet Crash
"One of the greatest to ever do it, Don Winslow's The Final Score proves that Winslow still knows how to bring the house down." - The Real Book Spy
"Six short stories that display all his customary narrative energy, darkly eloquent prose, and razor-sharp pacing." - Smoke Signals
"Original, deftly crafted, an an exceptionally compelling read from start to finish." - Midwest Book Review
"The Final Score is crime-writing master Don Winslow at his most efficient, deploying his blunt and entertaining style in six novellas....Winslow doesn't shy away from big issues. He's an entertainer with bite, a sociological commentator with an acute sense of justice." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
"Admired for his ability to create scenarios and characters that are instantly recognizable yet vividly fresh, Don Winslow emerges...with a half-dozen new stories in The Final Score." - Boston Herald
"More Winslow to savor." - Dayton Daily News
"These show the author's great versatility....The book has something for every Winslow fan—suspense, danger, humor and some of the funniest dialogue to appear in the pages of a mystery." - Denver Post
“The final shattering installment in a gangland trilogy to equal The Godfather. If you like Scarface and Goodfellas, this is where it's at.” - Stephen King on CITY IN RUINS
“City in Ruins is Don Winslow showing the rest of us how it’s done. Nobody does it better. The novel builds and builds, the drama, the suspense, our feelings for the central characters—and then everything comes together. Actually, everything explodes. It’s a beautiful, artful thing. Winslow has saved the best for last.” - James Patterson on CITY IN RUINS
“Winslow has produced a masterpiece of modern crime fiction.” - Wall Street Journal on CITY IN RUINS
“City of Dreams confirms Winslow as the rarest of literary creatures: a skilled crime writer who can combine stories that are almost hardboiled in style and sensibility, with a sophisticated analysis of the fault lines of post-imperial United States.”
- Sydney Morning Herald on CITY OF DREAMS
“The second volume in Winslow’s Danny Ryan trilogy delivers on all the promise of its predecessor. . . the Danny Ryan saga draws great power from its consummate portrait of a man whose unshakable humanity imperils him just as it offers the possibility of salvation.” - Booklist (starred review) on CITY OF DREAMS
“A masterwork of mob fiction.” - Washington Post on CITY ON FIRE
“You don’t read City on Fire so much as you let it take you for a ride.”
- USA Today on CITY ON FIRE
"Don Winslow can hold his own with the best of crime fiction's elite. . . . He's a bard of the bad guys and City on Fire is his most relentless book yet."
- Joe Hill, #1 New York Times bestselling author on CITY ON FIRE

From the Publisher